


Ground Rules

by realityisoverrated



Series: Infinite Love [43]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Polyfidelity, Smoaking billionaires, Toliver, flommy, olicity - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-16
Updated: 2016-07-16
Packaged: 2018-07-24 07:44:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7499859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/realityisoverrated/pseuds/realityisoverrated
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What do you when you enter a relationship with not one, but two billionaires? If you're Felicity Smoak, you set some ground rules.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ground Rules

**Author's Note:**

> This story depicts a polyamorous relationship between one woman and two men. If this is not something you are interested in, please stop and go no further.
> 
> Thank you for your response to Fear and Loathing. Many of your comments were personal and moving and I'm honored that you shared them with me. I'm very lucky to have all of you. 
> 
> Today, I'm back with some lighter fare - ish. After numerous requests, I finally finished the Ground Rules Felicity referenced way back in the beginning of the series. I hope you enjoy.
> 
> I'm not telling this series in chronological order. Some readers have requested that I provide a chronological order for the fics in the series. There is no need to read them in chronological order, but in case you'd like to, the list is below.  
> 1\. Beautiful Stranger (Part 28)  
> 2\. The Hack of the Golden Dragon (Part 36)  
> 3\. Girl Wednesday (Part 41)  
> 4\. The First Time (Part 1)  
> 5\. Aloe and Chamomile (Part 40)  
> 6\. The Italian Restaurant (Part 3)  
> 7\. Ground Rules (Part 43)  
> 8\. Do The Hustle (Part 21)  
> 9\. Wherever You Are, There I Am (Part 8)  
> 10\. Perfect (Part 16)  
> 11\. Practical Jokes and Other Misunderstandings (Part 14)  
> 12\. Cobble Hill (Part 4)  
> 13\. House Warming (Part 15)  
> 14\. 30 (Part 30)  
> 15\. Hong Kong (Part 35)  
> 16\. Twenty Questions Over Brunch (Part 11)  
> 17\. Hildy (Part 5)  
> 18\. Burgers & Lies (Part 9)  
> 19\. You Say You Want A Revolution (Part 22)  
> 20\. Look Me In The Eye And Make Me Feel The Truth (Part 12)  
> 21\. Fight Night (Part 20)  
> 22\. Fear and Loathing (Part 42)  
> 23\. Into Thin Air (Part 17)  
> 24\. It’s Just Like Falling (Part 27)  
> 25\. Will You Still Love Me, Tomorrow? (Part 7)  
> 26\. Life With The Arrow (Part 23)  
> 27\. Up All Night (Part 6)  
> 28\. Welcome Home (Part 10)  
> 29\. Better Than Chocolate Chip Banana Pancakes (Part 24)  
> 30\. Home Is Where You Are (Part 2)  
> 31\. Somebody Get A Hammer (Part 26)  
> 32\. Three (Part 13)  
> 33\. Life Lived In The Tabloids (Part 18)  
> 34\. Tokyo Calling (Part 25)  
> 35\. Something Blue (Part 39)  
> 36\. Prudence Chastity (Part 19)  
> 37\. Love Is Worth It In The End (Part 33)  
> 38\. The Mini (Part 38)  
> 39\. The Drop Out (Part 32)  
> 40\. William (Part 29)  
> 41\. Hold On For One More Day (Part 31)  
> 42\. Yours, Mine, Ours (Part 37)  
> 43\. Saturdays With The Green Arrow (Part 34)
> 
> Welcome to any new readers who have stumbled into this universe. The more the merrier.
> 
> Arrow and its characters do not belong to me.

Artwork by Lademonessa

 

Three tablets were laying on Tommy's dining room table along with a pitcher of water and three glasses. Felicity pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose and gave Oliver and Tommy a nervous smile, "Are you ready?"

The men took facing seats at the table after Felicity sat down at the head. She lifted her tablet and swiped her finger across the screen, "I've loaded a program that will enable us to edit a document together." She looked up from her tablet, "The most important thing about tonight's process is honesty. If we don't speak candidly about what we want or what we don't want or what we're feeling now, we're never going to last. It is a no judgment zone so everyone should speak freely and honestly. Where would you like to start? Our relationship or the bedroom?”

Tommy shifted uncomfortably in his seat and picked up the tablet, "Doesn't this all smack a little too much of Fifty Shades?"

Oliver's head whipped up from the tablet, "You've read Fifty Shades of Grey?"

"No, but it was all the waitresses at Verdant were talking about for months." Tommy shrugged, "I picked up a lot by osmosis."

Felicity rubbed her forehead, "I hope you have employment practices liability insurance because that sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen and, no, this isn't a BDSM contract."

Oliver had made the poorly timed decision of taking a sip of water and began to choke. Tommy couldn't suppress a grin, "Since we're already discussing BDSM, we might as well start with the bedroom."

"Fine," Felicity nodded and snapped her tablet into her portable keyboard, "who wants to start?"

It was Oliver's turn to shift nervously in his chair as he cleared his throat, "I just thought we'd keep going with whatever feels good is right."

Felicity rolled her eyes, "Yeah, no. I think that's a recipe for disaster."

"You don't want to do what feels good?" Oliver looked at Tommy for help, but his lifelong friend lifted up his hands in surrender.

Felicity knew what they were proposing to try might be the craziest thing that she'd ever done in her life and that list was a competitive field - flying in an airplane so old she was safer when she jumped out of it - jumping through a high rise window with Oliver who was only holding on to the cord of his window blinds - blowing up a science facility - hacking nightly into federal databases - counting cards in an underground casino – the list was becoming extensive. She knew crazy and if they were going to do this they needed to protect themselves and each other, "Of course we want to do what feels good, but that's not really a rule- unless you’re into pain and I’m not sure how I feel about that – so we might need a rule for that.”

“Pain?” Oliver asked with alarm. “I don’t want to cause either of you pain. Trust me, I don’t get off on that. I’ve experienced enough to last a lifetime.”

Felicity looked at Tommy whose eyes widened, “Hey, don’t look at me. I’m the one who seconded Ollie’s whole do what feels good rule. I’m not looking to build a red room.”

“Red room?” Oliver asked with confusion. “Am I supposed to know what that is?”

Felicity pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose, “Okay, I think we’re losing the thread. We can definitely come up with rules about specific things that we like and don’t like to experience. Personally, I don’t think I’d mind light bondage or a blindfold, but I’m not really into spanking – at least I don’t think I am.” She looked at the guys who were blinking at her rapidly. When neither spoke, she continued, “We need to establish ground rules so we can minimize the chances of any of us getting hurt or having this blow up in our faces."

“Hurt?” Oliver looked to Tommy before he looked back at Felicity. “I would never raise a hand to you. You know that, right?”

“Oliver,” Felicity reached across the table and took his hand, “I know that. I’ve never been afraid of you. This isn’t a BDSM contract,” she glared at Tommy for derailing what she’d hoped would be a straight forward conversation. “When I say hurt, I mean emotionally hurt. I don’t want anyone to be physically hurt either, but my main concern is that we don’t all end up with broken hearts and never speak to each other again.”

"Okay, why don't you start us off and Ollie and I will join in?" Tommy requested.

Felicity bit her lip and smiled, "This is an easy one - condoms." She began to type, "Condoms must be worn during penetrative sex."

Oliver wrinkled his nose at the word penetrative, but nodded his head, "Okay with me."

Tommy rocked side to side in his chair, "I'm not saying no, because we still have about one hundred and eighty condoms left from your shopping spree and it would be a waste of money not to use them. So, I'm saying yes, absolutely, yes to condoms and being safe, however, do we ever get to revisit this topic? Like, maybe, our tenth anniversary?"

Felicity smiled at Tommy's long term optimism. She was hoping they were still going to be speaking to one another in thirty days let alone celebrating a tenth anniversary. She began to type, "How about we can revisit the condom issue and getting tested when we've decided that we are committed to this relationship and have decided on fidelity."

"I'm not going to sleep with anyone else," Oliver said defensively, "I'm not like that anymore."

Felicity took hold of his hand, "I believe you."

“No,” Oliver pointed to her tablet, "make that a rule. No sleeping with anyone else."

"I wasn't planning on it," Tommy smiled, "so, I'm good with that rule too."

Felicity's fingers flew across her keyboard, "Good, what else?" She looked up, but Oliver and Tommy had resumed blank expressions. "How about, if anyone wants to try something new in the bedroom we discuss it first?”

“Like light bondage and blindfolds?” Tommy asked with a glint in his eyes.

Felicity nodded, “Yes. For example, if you want to tie me to the headboard with your tie, we discuss it first – before anyone’s clothes come off.”

Oliver shifted uncomfortably in his chair as his breathing picked up. He rubbed his hands back and forth and over his wrists, “I’m not comfortable with restraints – at all.”

“Hey,” Tommy said firmly as he reached across the table towards Oliver, “no one is going to tie you up if you don’t want to be.” He looked to Felicity, “Make that a rule.”

Felicity began to type but Oliver laid his hand on her forearm and swallowed heavily, “It doesn’t need to be its own rule. We discussed it, I said no. Okay?”

The last thing she wanted was for Oliver to have a panic attack while they were establishing ground rules. Felicity covered Oliver’s hand with her own, “Okay, now we know.” She waited for his breathing to return to normal before she continued, “In addition to discussing things before we’re naked, let’s just have a rule in case something comes up while we are naked. If anyone says no or says they’re uncomfortable, for any reason, everything stops until everyone agrees to continue. No one will pressure anyone to do anything they don't want to do."

Both men read the words as Felicity typed them and nodded their agreement.

"What about the two of you?" she asked.

“What about us?" Oliver raised a lone brow.

"I've noticed that you guys have been," she bit her lip and cocked her head, "um, staying north of the Mason Dixon line. Is that temporary or would you like it to be a rule?" Felicity paused with her fingers over her keyboard.

Oliver and Tommy looked at each other. They resembled a pair of goldfish who kept opening and closing their mouths but no sound came out. Tommy finally cleared his throat, "I don't know. We haven't really discussed that yet."

"Don't you think you should?" Felicity encouraged. "If one of you has expectations that the other can't meet, don't you want to know that now?"

Oliver tilted his head and looked directly at Tommy, "Do you want to have sex?"

Tommy blushed and looked at Felicity sideways, "I don't know."

"Would you like me to give you a minute? Maybe it would be easier if I wasn't here," she picked up her tablet as she stood up.

Oliver placed his hand on hers, "If we're all doing this then we're all doing this. If we can't talk about this with you, we probably shouldn't be trying this relationship." Oliver waited for Felicity to sit down. "Tommy, do you want me to touch you?"

Tommy's eyes got moist and he looked away from Oliver and Felicity.

"Are you okay?" Felicity asked with concern.

Tommy nodded his head, but didn't turn to look at them, "I need a minute."

Oliver and Felicity sat quietly as they watched Tommy struggle to articulate whatever emotions and thoughts he was having. He took a deep breath and turned back to look at Oliver. He looked completely vulnerable with his blue eyes glistening with unshed tears. "Yes," he said softly. He rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand and took another deep breath, "I've wanted you to touch me since we were twelve."

"Tommy," Oliver said like his name was a prayer.

"I want everything from you, but I know that's not what you want and that's okay because I will take what we have now rather than go back to where we were before. We said tonight was about being honest and I need to say it, just once, yes, I want to have sex with you," Tommy lowered his eyes to the table and wiped the tears that were now flowing freely down his face.

Oliver sat motionless. His eyes didn't blink and his chest barely moved as he breathed. His eyes closed and he took a deep breath and when his eyes re-opened he was suddenly in motion. He moved to the other side of the table and stood next to Tommy's chair. Oliver held out his hand, "Stand up, please."

Tommy slipped his hand into Oliver's and rose to his feet but his eyes remained fixed on the floor. Oliver placed a single finger under Tommy's chin and he guided his best friend's eyes to look into his own. Tommy's eyes slammed shut as soon as he allowed Oliver to lift his chin. Oliver caressed Tommy's face as he wiped the tears that continued to flow down his cheeks, "Please, look at me."

Tommy opened his eyes and found himself staring directly into Oliver's. Oliver smiled softly and then brushed his lips against Tommy's. Oliver lowered his forehead to Tommy's, "Don't tell me what I want. I want to give you everything that you want. I want to touch you wherever and however you want me to." Tommy let out a small sob and Oliver brushed his lips against Tommy's again, "I want you to touch me wherever and however you want to." Oliver squeezed his eyes shut and cursed under his breath. When he opened them again, he pressed his lips to Tommy's and begged entrance with his tongue. Tommy opened his mouth and moaned as Oliver's tongue licked inside. Oliver broke the kiss as he slowly sucked on Tommy's bottom lip before he gently bit it between his teeth. When he had his breathing under control he smiled, "I don't just want you to touch me because you want to. Tommy, I want you too. I want us to have sex."

Tommy pulled Oliver into his arms and dropped his head against his shoulder with his lips pressed against Oliver's neck. Oliver tightened his arms around Tommy, "I just need you to be patient. I'm not there yet, but I will be, soon - I promise."

They stood locked in one another's embrace until Tommy's tears had stopped. Tommy kissed Oliver's neck before he stepped from his embrace and returned to his seat. He looked at Felicity, "We don't need a rule for that."

Felicity smiled warmly at both of them, "I don't think you do either."

Oliver returned to his chair and let out a shaky breath. "Okay, let's talk about sex."

"I thought we already were," Felicity teased gently.

He rubbed his hands back and forth over his head as he looked between Felicity and Tommy, "So far, we've only been together, together. Are we allowed to have sex if it is only two of us?"

Both Tommy and Felicity sat back heavily against their chairs. Tommy laughed, "I honestly never thought about it, but I'm thinking it might be hard to avoid."

"I've kissed both of you without the other present and I'm pretty sure you've kissed without me present," Felicity watched them for their acknowledgment. "It didn't feel like cheating to me. I mean we kiss when we're all together it would feel weird not to kiss one of you just because the other wasn't around. You're both pretty kissable and when I'm alone with just one of you I still want to kiss you." She took a deep breath, "I imagine that there are going to be times when we're going to want to have sex when there are just two of us around." Felicity could feel herself blushing, "I like having sex with both of you and I can see how being alone with just one of you could lead to having sex."

"Sex is different from kissing," Tommy said cautiously. "How do we make sure that there isn't jealousy? Can we cheat on each other with each other? Is that possible?"

"I don't know," Felicity said honestly. She suddenly feared that they'd discovered the one thing that could destroy them, "Is this a deal breaker for our being able to do this? I don't think we can have a rule that says we only have sex if all three of us are present, because I'm pretty sure that's a rule we can't keep and then it will be cheating."

"So, make that the rule," Oliver said slowly. "We can't cheat on each other with each other."

"We can say that," Tommy sounded hesitant, "but how do we make that true? How does the one who isn't having sex feel like they aren't being excluded or cheated on?"

"We talk about it. If we have sex with one, we're open about it with the other," Oliver offered.

Tommy narrowed his eyes, "Are we going to send one another texts? _Want to watch the game tonight? Felicity and I had sex without you._ "

Oliver looked a little horrified, "I wasn't actually thinking about texting. I was thinking that while we had dinner and discussed our day it could be part of the information we share. _I met with the board today and managed to stay awake. Felicity and I had takeout from the new Thai place downtown and it was terrible. We had sex after lunch. Do you want to watch the game tonight?_ "

Felicity laughed, "We are never having sex in the office. NE-VER." She added it to the list of rules.

Oliver tried to look innocent, "I just said that we had sex, I didn't say that it was in the office."

She batted her eyelashes, "Still, it’s a rule now - so there won’t be any confusion."

“Is that a rule we get to revisit?” Oliver asked in a slightly higher voice than usual. “I might have some very vivid fantasies about you and my desk.”

Felicity narrowed her eyes at him, “Ne-Ver.”

Oliver put his hands up in defeat, “Okay, just asking.”

“No fantasies about me and your desk?” Tommy teased.

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen you in high heels and a short dress,” Oliver deadpanned.

Tommy looked hurt, “Really? Does our first year at Harvard mean that little to you.”

It took a minute but Oliver eventually remembered the incident Tommy was referring to. He started to laugh, “Now that I remember, I can definitely say that I do not have that fantasy about you.” Oliver pointed between himself and Tommy, “You can add that as an addendum to your rule. We won’t be having sex in the office either.”

Tommy looked down at the tablet as he tried to hide a grin, “That’s really too bad. I might have had a fantasy or two about you in our office at Verdant.”

When Oliver visibly gulped, Felicity rolled her eyes. She deleted Oliver’s addendum about having office sex with Tommy. “Okay,” Felicity resumed being serious, "back to the subject at hand. We tell each other when two of us have sex?"

Tommy nodded, "I'm okay with that, I think."

Felicity saw the doubt on Tommy's face and couldn't let them leave it at that. If he was uncertain, then the solution wouldn't work, "What are you worried about?"

He sighed, "How much do we say? How much do we need to say? Is it enough to tell Oliver that we had sex or do we need to tell him positions and number of orgasms or is telling the other any detail about what happened a betrayal of the other? Is it possible to do this without hurting anyone?"

Felicity looked to Oliver, "I don't know. Do you need to know everything? Do you not want to share details?"

"Do we need a hard rule around this part?" Oliver looked between them, "I agree that we need to accept that we can't cheat on each other with each other and that we need to tell one another when we have sex without the other, but the level of detail we share might be situational. I think that most of the time it will be enough just to inform the other that two of us had sex, but there might be times when we need to share more information."

"These rules aren't set in stone, right?" Tommy looked at Felicity, "This might be something we need to try out and see what works and doesn't work and adjust."

Felicity began to type and she started with the first rule under the relationship header, "Honest open communication. Talking is not optional."  She looked up at them, "I think this is probably the most important rule. We have to talk to one another. We can't let things fester. If something is bothering one of us, we have to tell the others, otherwise this will never work."

“Works for me.” Tommy drummed his fingers against the table, “I’d like to talk about fighting.”

“Fighting?” Felicity asked. “What kind of fighting?”

“Well, you and I haven’t had any fights and I imagine that will change the longer we’re together, but, Ollie and I, we fight,” Tommy raised his brows at Oliver in silent challenge.

“You want a rule so that we aren’t allowed to fight?” Oliver sounded incredulous. “I’m pretty sure that is a rule we won’t be able to keep.”

“I don’t want to make a rule about not fighting. I want a rule about what happens when we do fight,” Tommy offered.

Felicity leaned closer to Tommy, “Like what?”

Tommy pointed to Oliver, “No running. We have a fight - you don’t get to disappear. You especially don’t get to go to the North China Sea for brooding time.”

Oliver ran his hands over his head, “Tommy.”

“No, don’t Tommy me. If you’re pissed at me, yell at me, I can take it. I can’t take you disappearing. You’d pulled that shit at fifteen and you still do it. If we’re going to be in a relationship, I won’t tolerate it.”

“What does disappear me?” Oliver asked quietly. “Going for a run?”

“If you need a time-out to clear your head, that’s fine, but you know what I’m talking about. You can’t runaway to places unknown and you can’t shut down emotionally on me either. I’d love to say that we never go to bed angry, but you have a real gift for pissing me off,” Tommy winked.

Oliver laughed, “Fair enough.”

“We don’t go to bed angry or without a game plan to address whatever is upsetting us the next morning,” Tommy said as he typed on his keyboard.

“Sounds reasonable to me,” Felicity looked at Oliver.

“My instinct is to run,” Oliver said to Tommy. “It always has been.”

Tommy smiled sympathetically, “I know it is and I know that I’m asking a lot, but I need this from you, Ollie. When things get tough, because they always do, I need you to stay and fight, for me, for all of us.”

Oliver leaned back in his chair and exhaled heavily, “Okay.”

Tommy sighed with relief, “Thank you.”

Felicity tapped her forefinger against her lips and stared out the window. After a few minutes, Tommy squeezed her arm, “Everything okay?”

Her eyes came back into focus and she leaned back in her chair, “I was just thinking about decision making. There are three of us. Are we a democracy where the majority rules or do we require unanimous decisions?” She shrugged her shoulder, “I’m just thinking that I might be watching Sports Center for the rest of my life and never see Doctor Who again if we’re going to go with majority rules. However, if we go with unanimous decisions, we will only ever watch the Food Channel.”

Oliver laughed. Felicity raised her eyebrows, “What?”

“I’m just trying to remember the last time I made a decision,” he said with a grin.

“That’s because when you make decisions things tend to go badly,” she said seriously.

“Hey,” Oliver gently tapped her leg with the toe of his shoe.

She laughed, “These rules don’t change anything at QC or with the team. Dig and I still have veto power over you. These rules are for our relationship and you get a say in our relationship.”

“Gee, thanks,” he grumbled.

“I’m okay with taking turns on deciding on take-out and what we watch on tv. I imagine we will want unanimous decisions on bigger decisions,” Tommy interjected.

“Like what?” Oliver turned his gaze back to Tommy.

“I don’t know,” Tommy looked at the ceiling, “living arrangements?”

“Living arrangements?” Felicity repeated. “Like, living together.”

“Yeah,” Tommy said. “I don’t think we need to decide that now, but one day, we might want to think about that and I imagine it will need to be a unanimous decision.”

“Sounds fair,” Oliver said as he watched Felicity type the new rule.

“Anything else?” Felicity asked cheerfully. “The list is dynamic, so we can always modify, add and subtract rules.”

Tommy raised his hand, “I do have one question.”

“Okay,” Felicity nodded encouragingly.

“Are you planning on staying dressed all night or will there be nudity?” Tommy asked with a straight face.

Felicity turned to face Oliver, “I was thinking Chinese for dinner.”

Oliver shook his head, “Is this one of the unanimous decisions, because I’m voting for nudity?”

Tommy grinned, “That’s two for nudity. What do you say, Smoak?”

Felicity rose from the table and pulled her dress over her head in one fluid movement, “We’re having Chinese for dinner.” She walked out of the dining room towards Tommy’s bedroom.

Both men sat for a moment staring at one another before the sound of their chairs scraping against the hard wood floors echoed through the apartment. They entered the bedroom to find Felicity laying on the bed naked, except for her heels. The guys began to strip and Oliver said, “You can have whatever you want for dinner.”

She reached out for both of them, “Let’s start with dessert.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. Kudos and comments are always welcomed and appreciated. Hearing from you is my favorite part of the day.
> 
> Any ideas or prompts for what you'd like to read in this universe are always welcome. You have been sharing some great ideas - please keep them coming.
> 
> You can also come say hi to me on tumblr. http://realityisoverrated-fic.tumblr.com/ 
> 
> I posted a series timeline and a chronological story order with links earlier this week.


End file.
